Jewish chess champions & grandmasters
Jewish recipients of the Jewish chess champions & grandmasters documented in the ThankJews directory. Jews are about 44% of all recipients — while making up roughly 0.2% of the world's population.
30 documented recipients
Emanuel Lasker1894
German chess master; World Chess Champion for 27 years (1894-1921), the longest reign in history.
Source: https://www.jinfo.org/Chess_Champions.html
Wilhelm Steinitz1886
First undisputed World Chess Champion (1886) and father of the modern positional school of chess.
Source: https://www.jinfo.org/Chess_Champions.html
Mikhail Botvinnik1911
World Chess Champion 1948-1963
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chess
Siegbert Tarrasch1862
Chess grandmaster and leading theorist
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chess
Aron Nimzowitsch1886
Chess grandmaster and hypermodern theorist
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chess
Richard Réti1889
Chess grandmaster and hypermodern theorist
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chess
Rudolf Spielmann1883
Chess grandmaster
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chess
Reuben Fine1914
Chess grandmaster and theorist
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chess
David Bronstein1924
Chess grandmaster, World Championship challenger 1951
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chess
Isaac Boleslavsky1919
Chess grandmaster and opening theorist
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chess
Judit Polgar1976
Chess grandmaster, strongest female player in history
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chess
Alexander Belyavsky1953
Chess grandmaster
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chess
Rudolph Charousek1873
Chess master
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chess
David Janowski1868
Chess grandmaster, World Championship challenger
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chess
Viktor Korchnoi1978
Chess grandmaster, twice World Championship challenger (1978, 1981); of mainly Jewish descent
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
Lev Polugaevsky1934
Soviet chess grandmaster, world-title candidate and opening theorist
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
Efim Geller1925
Soviet chess grandmaster, six-time world-title candidate
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
Mikhail Tal1960
World Chess Champion 1960-61, 'the Magician from Riga'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
Leonid Stein1934
Three-time Soviet chess champion
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
Samuel Reshevsky1911
American chess grandmaster, chess prodigy and eight-time US champion
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
Yuri Averbakh1922
Soviet chess grandmaster and preeminent endgame theorist
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
Semyon Furman1920
Soviet chess grandmaster and trainer of world champion Anatoly Karpov
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
Salomon Flohr1908
Czechoslovak chess grandmaster, leading world-title candidate of the 1930s
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
Miguel Najdorf1910
Polish-Argentine chess grandmaster; the Najdorf Sicilian bears his name
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
László Szabó1917
Hungarian chess grandmaster
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
Ossip Bernstein1882
Chess grandmaster of the classical era
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
Johannes Zukertort1886
Contested the first official World Chess Championship against Steinitz (1886)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews among the 64 strongest chess players (Warriors of the Mind, 1989)
Isidor Gunsberg1891
World Chess Championship challenger against Steinitz (1891)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish world chess championship runners-up
Boris Gelfand2012
Israeli chess grandmaster, World Championship challenger (2012)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish world chess championship runners-up
Ian Nepomniachtchi2021
Two-time World Chess Championship challenger (2021, 2023)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish world chess championship runners-up